Not all politics is local
Our sister newsletter has you covered with the legislative races ... Engel and Ciscomani face off.
At the Tucson Agenda, we spend our time looking at local races, like the ones where Tucson-area voters send legislators to the state Capitol.
But how do those races fit into the larger puzzle of statewide politics?
Lucky for us, that puzzle is exactly what our colleagues at the Arizona Agenda spend all their time on.
Today, we’re dipping into their reporting to shed some light on the bigger picture and Tucson’s place in it.
As we've noted before, the Tucson area has a handful of competitive legislative races, like the House and Senate races in Legislative District 17.
Those races have a little more heft to them than just who will represent residents of Saddlebrooke and Vail. They are among just a few hot House races and teetering Senate races that will determine whether Republicans or Democrats control the state Legislature next year.
But for the most part, the Tucson area’s legislative races are quiet this year.
In fact, they’re quieter than pretty much anywhere else in the state. The Tucson area is home to nearly half of the 12 legislative races in the state that are already over because nobody is running against them in the general election.
That doesn’t mean those legislators are sitting idly. Democratic Sen. Priya Sundareshan in the Tucson area’s LD18 is using her time to try to get other Democrats elected.
“It is nice not to have to focus on my own reelection,” Sundareshan said. “But I'm not resting. I'm putting a lot of effort, in fact, into the bigger picture, which is flipping the Legislature.”
At the Tucson Agenda, one district that we couldn’t quite get to this year was LD23. The district is based in Yuma County, but also includes parts of Pima County. Two years ago, Republican Rep. Michele Peña, pulled off a surprise victory in the Democratic-leaning district and now Democrats are trying to win back the seat.
In another local-ish race, Democrats are running a father-daughter duo in LD16, which includes a bit of northern Pima County.
Two years ago, Democrats used the “single shot” strategy to help Rep. Keith Seaman win a seat in the Republican-leaning district (similar to what Democratic candidate Kevin Volk is trying to pull off in LD17 this year), and now Seaman’s daughter, Stacey Seaman, is trying to unseat longtime Republican Sen. T.J. Shope.1
When the state Legislature starts back up in January, many Tucsonans will once again be baffled by the bills they see coming out of the Legislature.
A lot of that hinges on who wins the post-election election to be the next speaker of the House. The winner controls everything from the chamber’s budget to committee assignments to controlling which bills get the chance to become law.
This is pure politics in action, where lawmakers who want to be speaker try to make it look like they already have it wrapped up, which puts pressure on other lawmakers to support them for fear of missing out on being on the winning team.
“The first thing you have to understand about the speakers race is everyone claims to have it locked up,” as one Republican lawmaker put it. “These are politicians’ politicians trying to get votes from politicians. … They know how to project confidence.”
Right now, the main candidates for speaker are Republicans, but that could get upended if Democrats win a couple of those close House races, including the one in LD17.
We’ll leave you with one of our favorite stories from the Arizona Agenda this election cycle, their critique of political signs, including a bunch from Tucson-area races.
In the wrong light: The Tucson Police Department cast itself as an example of “progressive policing,” but when tensions were high in the summer of 2020, they found themselves on the wrong side of history. The Associated Press’ Jaques Billeaud and Mike Catalini reconstruct how TPD reacted to the death of Carlos Adrian Ingram Lopez at the hands of a Tucson police officer while the world watched the fallout of the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis.
Abortion in the spotlight: Abortion was a key issue at yesterday’s debate between Republican U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani and Democrat Kirsten Engel in Congressional District 6, Capitol Media Services’ Howard Fischer reports. Engel supports Prop 139 and would try to get federal protections that are similar to those under Roe v. Wade. Ciscomani said abortion is a state issue and opposed Arizona’s 1864 ban. He also wants exceptions for rape or incest. The two candidates also clashed over the fact that Engel lives two blocks outside the district’s boundaries and Ciscomani’s lack of support for a bipartisan border package that was scuttled by former President Donald Trump.
No show, again: The Arizona Republic’s Ray Stern reached out to the candidates for the state Senate seat in Legislative District 17. Democrat John McLean answered the Republic’s questionnaire about the economy, groundwater, and other issues. Republican Vince Leach did not. Leach also didn't show up to a recent Clean Election debate.
Call to the public: Under a new state law, cities must convert more of their commercial and office buildings into residential development, or another form of “adaptive reuse,” by the end of the year. Tucson officials are holding a meeting October 15 to get input from the public. The meeting will be virtual and anyone interested can sign up here.
Picking up steam: Voter registration in Pima County is outpacing the 2016 and 2020 election years, Arizona Public Media’s Hannah Cree reports. More than 4,500 people registered last week and the total stands at more than 655,000. That includes an uptick in voters who aren’t affiliated with a major party and a slight decrease in Democrats.
Tweaks needed: Some local residents, and bicyclists, are annoyed at the Midtown Bicycle Boulevard, KGUN’s Eddie Celaya reports. The City of Tucson’s program installed traffic-calming measures like traffic circles, but in the Blenman-Elm neighborhood some say the roundabouts are too big, there’s not enough lighting, and the reflectors on the road aren’t bright enough.
515,683: Registered voters in Arizona’s Congressional District 6. That includes 185,000 Republicans, 157,000 Democrats, and 174,000 voters who aren’t affiliated with a major political party.
We mistakenly listed Shope as a state representative. He’s a senator.